Business Article

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

The current monetary system of the United States is unconstitutional,
through and through. The Constitution does not provide an in-depth
explanation as to what monetary system the United States must use, but
what it does say is unambiguously lucid. Article I, Section 8, clause 2
states: "The Congress shall have power... to borrow money on the credit
of the United States... [clause 5:] to coin money, regulate the value
thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standards of weights and
measures... [and clause 6:] to provide for the punishment of
counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States... "
Furthermore, Article I, section 10, clause 1 declares: "No state
shall... coin money; emit bills of credit; or make anything but gold and
silver coin a tender in payment of debts... "

The
writing of the Constitution in the summer of 1787 did not take place
long enough after the end of the Revolutionary War for the Founding
Fathers to forget the calamity of paper money printed and issued by the
Continental Congress during the war. The paper notes known as
"Continentals" eventually declined to zero percent of their original
value because they could not be redeemed for either silver or gold. They
were "greenbacks", and as such were the first of three major
experiments with "greenbacks" that this nation has conducted. The
Continental greenback failed so terribly that it gave rise to the saying
"not worth a Continental."

Therefore, there was hostility towards
paper money when the Constitutional Convention met in 1787. A delegate
from Virginia by the name of George Mason declared that he had a "mortal
hatred to paper money." Delegate Oliver Ellsworth from Connecticut
believed the Convention to be "a favorable moment to shut and bar the
door against paper money." James Wilson, a Pennsylvania delegate,
argued: "It will have a more salutary influence on the credit of the
United States to remove the possibility of paper money." South Carolina
Delegate, Pierce Butler, made the point that paper was not legal tender
in any country of Europe and that it ought not be made one in the United
States. John Langdon of New Hampshire said that he would rather reject
the whole Constitution than allow the federal government the power to
issue paper money. When it came time for the final vote on the issue,
nine states opposed granting the federal government power to issue paper
money, and only two favored such a power.

The Founder's
intentions were made obviously by using the word "coin" rather than the
word "print," or the phrase "emit bills of credit." Thomas M. Cooley's
Principles of Constitutional Law expounds upon this point: "To coin
money is to stamp pieces of metal for use as a medium of exchange in
commerce according to fixed standards of value."

Congress was
granted the exclusive power to coin money while the states were
prohibited from doing so. In addition, states were prohibited from
making anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debt,
while the federal government was not granted the power of making
anything legal tender.

In James Madison's explanation of the
Constitutional provisions on money, Federalist No. 44, Madison referred
to the "pestilent effects of paper money on the necessary confidence
between man and man, on the necessary confidence in the public councils,
on the industry and morals of the people, and on the character of
republican government." The intention of the Founders was to avoid the
paper-based monetary system that has been used in the United States
since Richard Nixon closed the gold window in 1971.

This intention was understood even throughout the 19th century. Daniel Webster wrote:

"If
we understand, by currency, the legal money of the country, and that
which constitutes a lawful tender for debts, and is the statute measure
of value, then undoubtedly, nothing is included but gold and silver.
Most unquestionably, there is no legal tender, and there can be no legal
tender in this country under the authority of this government or any
other, but gold and silver, either the coinage of our mints or foreign
coins at rates regulated by Congress. This is a constitutional
principle, perfectly plain and of the very highest importance. The
states are expressly prohibited from making anything but gold and silver
a tender in payment of debts, and although no such expressed
prohibition is applied to Congress, yet as Congress has no power granted
to it in this respect but to coin money and to regulate the value of
foreign coins, it clearly has no power to substitute paper or anything
else for coin as tender in payment of debts in a discharge of
contracts... The legal tender, therefore, the constitutional standard of
value, is established and cannot be overthrown. To overthrow it would
shake the whole system."

In 1832, the Select Committee on Coins of
the House of Representatives, in a report to Congress, concluded that
"the losses and deprivation inflicted by experiments with paper
currency, especially during the Revolution; the knowledge that similar
attempts in other countries... were equally delusive, unsuccessful, and
injurious; had likely produced the conviction that gold and silver alone
could be relied upon as safe and effect money."

In 1844, the
House Committee on Ways and Means concluded: "The framers of the
Constitution intended to avoid the paper money system. Especially did
they intend to prevent Government paper from circulating as money, as
had been practiced during the Revolutionary War. The Mischiefs of the
various expedients that had been made were fresh in the public mind, and
were said to have disgusted the respectable part of America... the
framers.. designed to prevent the adoption of the paper system under any
pretext or for any purpose whatsoever; and if it had not been supposed
that such an object was effectively secured, in all probability the
rejection of the Constitution might have followed."

In 1884, in
the case Julliard vs. Greenman, Justice Stephen Field wrote: " There
have been times within the memory of all of us when the legal notes of
the United States were not exchangeable for more than half their nominal
value. The possibility of such depreciation will always attend paper
money. This inborn infirmity, no mere legislative declaration can cure.
If Congress has the power to make the notes legal tender and to pass as
money or its equivalent, why should not a sufficient amount be issued to
pay the bonds of the United States as they mature? Why pay interest on
the millions of dollars of bonds now due when Congress can in one day
make the money to pay the principal; and why should there be any
restrain upon unlimited appropriations by the government for all
imaginary schemes of public improvement if the printing press can
furnish the money that is needed for them?"

It is noteworthy that
this power of coining money is mentioned in the same sentence in the
Constitution as the power to "fix the standards of weights and
measures," because the framers regarded money as a weight of metal and a
measure of value. Roger Sherman, delegate to the Constitutional
Convention, wrote that "if what is used as a medium of exchange is
fluctuating in its value, it is no better than unjust weights and
measures... which are condemned by the Laws of God and man... "

Today's
paper money system, issued by a coercive banking monopoly, has no basis
the in the Constitution. It is precisely the sort of government
institution that can forcibly exact financial support from the people
without their consent. As such, it is a form of taxation without
representation, and a denial of the hard fought and won principle of
consent before payment of taxes. It is a form of embezzlement.

Surprisingly,
the Supreme Court has never decided on any cases challenging the
constitutionality of our current irredeemable paper money system; in
fact such a case has not yet been adjudicated before the Court or at the
federal appellate level.

The argument against a irredeemable
paper money system is more than a Constitutional argument. It is also a
moral argument. Furthermore, this system has led to a split in the field
of Economics between Monetarists and the new school of Austrian
Economics. This split lies mainly in the concept of inflation.
Monetarists describe inflation as "the rise of prices over a period of
time" whereas Austrian Economists describe inflation as "the unwise
over-expansion of the supply of money and credit." It seems that the
Austrian Economists have won this argument but the Federal Reserve
continues to operate under the Monetarist definition of inflation. This
leads to the lowering of interest rates once the bubbles (like the
Dotcom bubble or the sub-prime mortgage crisis of 2008) of the boom-bust
cycle burst. This leads to further expansion of credit in the system
and the creation of a new bubble and thus the perpetuity and increased
severity of the boom-bust cycle. This inflationary monetary policy
facilitates the transfer of wealth from the poor to the very wealthy and
politicians and the consolidation of wealth in the hands of a few.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

The need for additional space can present a headache for any
business, whether it is needed for extra capacity or to overcome the
consequences of a fire or flood. Creating a conventional building of
bricks and mortar is a time consuming and costly exercise and
increasingly businesses are turning to prefabricated buildings as an
alternative. There are a variety of designs and styles of prefabricated
buildings so there are choices to be made.
Prefabricated building alternatives
For
larger prefabricated buildings the choice is between having a steel or
an aluminium building and both have their advantages. Buildings made
from steel are obviously stronger than those made from aluminium but,
because of their weight usually require ground work to be carried out to
support the load and there is the possibility of corrosion over time.
Aluminium is not as heavy as steel and buildings made in this material
can be installed on to level hard standing without extra foundations
being laid. Although aluminium is a lighter material than steel it is
more flexible when impacted and is very resistant to corrosion.
The
fact that aluminium buildings can be assembled in a matter of days and
be disassembled just as quickly, makes them an attractive proposition
for use as an alternative to a permanent structure. This type of
building can also be bought outright or hired which offers choice in the
financial arrangements.
Selecting a prefabricated building
As
with most things however its horses for courses and some people prefer
steel buildings because they come with a steel roof. The aluminium
prefab buildings have a fabric PVC roof which may need to be replaced
during the lifetime of the building. This however is an extremely fast
and economical job so devoted fans of the aluminium option don't find it
significant enough to change course.
Given the very fast
installation time and the fact that most suppliers carry stock,
aluminium industrial buildings can create on-site space extremely
quickly. This is obviously ideal in an emergency such as a warehouse
fire, but it also gives businesses the ability to quickly capitalise on
growth opportunities and get a fast return. When compared to a steel or
permanent structure, a return on a new project can be seen in weeks as
opposed to months, or maybe years.
Prefabricated buildings also
come in the form of cabin type structures; Portakabin being a renowned
manufacturer and provider. These buildings are often used for offices
and classrooms but can also provide space for a wide range of
applications such as canteens, marketing suites, bathrooms, retail or
storage units. Steel framed modular buildings of this nature are
manufactured in the factory and fitted out with all services prior to
being transported, ready for use, to site where they are craned into
position. All manufacturing is done in a controlled factory environment
avoiding any problems with adverse weather or busy operational sites.
Buildings can be stacked on top of each other creating multiple storeys
and hired or purchased.
This wide choice of prefabricated building
combined with the options available with permanent structures shows
that with the right research and knowledge businesses can find a
solution that ticks all their boxes for design, cost, speed,
functionality and durability.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Buying a business or starting a new business is very challenging
task to do and everyone cannot perform well in this. A business requires
a goal, financial investment, structure and thousands of customers.
It's a competitive world and everyone wants to get success in his work
and want to make money fast.
As
we know that today the whole world is going online. Three fundamental
features are there of the web that increase the power of it.
The
web is global in which many servers and browsers make connection between
businesses and consumers. This is an open technology that has also
allowed the Internet to grow globally.
The best advantage of the
web is that it is the most powerful information source for consumers and
they can easily gain rich information about the product, services and
also about buying a business online.
The web is interactive. It is
the ability of web in which the true nature of the internet and the
basis of its power are included to conduct a dialogue with the consumer.
The online business is the best way to start a new business or to buy
an old business. You can connect many consumers with your business and
earn more profit.
You can make the better future of your business;
you just need to be careful of the effects what you see on the website
and the real opportunities of your future company. These make the
partnership between seller and buyer to work together and to get the
mutual benefit. You should have the online store of your product or
others for all so that anyone can buy them anytime and anywhere in the
world. It will repeat your customers if, you are eager to work harder
and it can be a large portion of a company's business.
An
e-commerce website or company website builds relationship between
business and consumers and help satisfying customer's desire for
effective customer service. A business website allows customers to find
the information what they want and whenever they need it. It can be easy
to answer the same questions of customers with a presence of the web
and to save a lot of time to be spent. Your staff can direct them to
your website for further information.
Two major advantages are
there of online business. First, it makes the online communication and
help knowing the consumer feedback. A positive feedback makes your
customers feel good about your business or company. Second, it helps in
getting more profit directly and getting success in life.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

There are several factors that can encourage a person to apply
for a job at a specific company and stay on to become a loyal, long-term
employee. Primarily, the opportunity to work within one's academic
field is a major factor in deciding on which employers to send
applications to; in such an employment, the candidate will be able to
put the skills and knowledge he gained from his academic life and
training to good use. For others, however, getting the job they studied
for may not be as urgent a need as landing one that pays significantly
better. Still others may choose to apply at an office where employees
and the management alike demonstrate a solid commitment to various
social causes. No matter where a candidate sends his resume, one can
assume that he chose a specific organisation because he believes he can
gain positive benefits from the employment.
When
employees choose to leave a company, it is equally important for the
employer to know the reasons that led to this event. Resignations can
indicate that there is a source of dissatisfaction or discomfort within
the company's processes that may be affecting the employees'
performances or their view of the work environment. By hiring
experienced human resource experts to gather and interpret staff
turnover data, a company can discover its strong points that motivate
people to join their team as well as its faults that convince them to
seek employment elsewhere.
Exit interviews are some of the most
important processes that can give companies a clearer picture of why
employees are choosing to leave their positions. In these interviews, a
person is encouraged to identify the reasons they wish to leave-this
could pertain to lack of communication among teams, faulty leadership
from the management, disorganised workflows, strained relationships with
colleagues, unsafe or unsanitary facilities, and others. Often, people
undergoing exit interviews will be asked questions such as whether any
steps were taken to address these issues and why resignation was the
solution chosen by the employee. With this information, a company can
discover its undesirable practices and weak spots and address them
accordingly to prevent future resignations and improve the harmony
within the workplace.
Human resource experts will also be able to
help companies discover their strong points that encourage people to
join their teams and engage them to stay as employees for the long haul.
These experts can find out the main reasons why tenured employees
choose to stay; these could refer to respectable leaders, outstanding
benefits, creative and constructive team dynamics, and comfortable and
productivity-stimulating office surroundings. Companies can identify
their strongest areas and further develop these to strengthen employee
satisfaction and productivity even more.
With successful employee
retention practices, an organization will find itself with loyal,
inspired, and happy employees that contribute to the success of the
entire business entity. These workers will also become highly likely to
invite friends and acquaintances to discover for themselves how the
company can be a great place to work, thus bringing in even more
qualified and dedicated employees. Retention experts
with years of experience in human resource management can help
strengthen a company's existing workforce, implement effective
recruitment strategies, and enjoy success thanks to their valuable
employees.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Small businesses, however small they may be described, still have a
lot on their plate to keep the venture running smoothly. While they may
not have large departments of employees or overseas sites working round
the clock on specific operations, they would still have a number of
processes to look after, and this is often made possible by the creation
of a highly efficient and rewarding office information technology (IT)
system.

What
small businesses may not have, however, is a dedicated IT department to
maintain an eye over their systems throughout the day. If a technical
crisis were to emerge on a particularly crucial period, the small
company would have no immediate way of getting the IT system back up and
running, and every minute that passes with major operations stalled
would have potentially devastating loss on the company's ability to
generate profits. Important tasks will be delayed and many opportunities
for new or recurring business may be lost. One solution to prevent this
from ever happening is to hire an excellent IT support team to handle
the company's various IT needs.

Local and reliable IT support
services would have the know-how and the skills to resolve simple to
complicated IT issues in the quickest time possible. Most of these
service providers offer a remote support program to help business with
their technical problems right away. If there are cases wherein the
issue would need a closer inspection or more hands-on solutions, locally
based support teams would have no trouble heading out to the client's
offices to restore the systems as quickly as possible.

Most IT
support systems are also well-versed in a variety of other offerings.
They would also be qualified to perform a network installation service
to carry out specific IT projects of different scales-from simple
servers to more complex multi-site requirements. Client companies can
hire IT experts to help from the initial planning stage through to the
completion of the project if they wish.

A data recovery service
would also be a popular and extremely helpful offering by an expert IT
team. Several factors can wreak havoc on a small company's technical
systems: a computer virus might attack its servers, an employee may have
mistakenly deleted a number of important files, or accidents involving
fire, water, electricity, and even natural calamities might severely
damage a company's hard drive. Skilled IT experts can employ recovery
procedures and install preventive applications to help companies avoid
similar disasters with data loss in the future.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Product review & rating has become a popular feature that most of
the successful e-commerce merchants have applied on their product
details page. Main advantage of this feature is: it assures the visitors
and customers that this product is not just another banal e-commerce
product. People are actually talking about it (both positive and
negative) and their thinking is listed here!

People
always leave for your competitors when your product details page can't
satisfy them by assuring them. Your product details page is the most
important part of the site as this is the place when your customers
decide whether to add the product to the cart or to abandon it. Hence,
every effort should be taken to assure the customers that the products
you are offering are indeed offers good bargain and value for price.

One
of the strongest features in your product details page is the option to
let the customers express their opinion and experience about the
product. A simple one line comment added by a happy customer can assure
lots of other visiting customers about purchasing the product.

Following
are 5 tips for making your product details page more efficient by
encouraging customers and visitors to write reviews for your products:

Tips 1 - Product Details page Design:

Your
product details page design should get special emphasize hence people
always love to visit the products details pages that are visually
attractive and neatly presented. The product details page should arrange
the product images, description, prices and attribute selection options
etc. very neatly and in a way so that customers can find information
easily. If your product details page design and arrangement is vivid and
attractive, people would love to write something about it. Adding Image
zooming, image video and multiple images illustrates the product better
and thus gives customers a good insight about the product. If a visitor
finds a eye-catchy product details page, it's more likely that s/he
would like to add some words there.

Tips 2 - Don't make the process complicated:

Keep
the Review & Rating feature simple. A complicated process would
simply forbid visitors and customers from adding the reviews. If you
want the rating feature to be present along with the review option,
offer a visual 5 star rating which can be rated using the mouse click.
Offer the negative rating options that would give a bold impression to
the visitors that they are free to rate it the way they feel. For the
Review make the email fields optional as people often don't want their
emails to be visible publicly. Offer an option whether to show or hide
the email addresses from the published reviews. One issue you should be
particularly careful about is the CAPTCHA. Easy CAPTCHA can easily be
broken by the spammers and hard CAPTCHA irritates the real reviewers.
Choose one which is difficult to break by the Spamming softwares yet
easy for the human users to read.

Tips 3 - Moderate the Reviews and rating:

Your
e-commerce platform should help you administering the review and rating
casted by the visitors or customers. You should be able to
publish/un-publish the reviews,(even manipulate if you want), control
the visibility, control the number of reviews per page, reply back to a
reviewer and other conventional review & rating moderation features.
If you value what your customers are saying about your products, you
should regularly moderate the reviews. Visitors feel frustrated they
find that their reviews are never getting published in your website.
Send them thank you emails for the reviews and visiting your website and
as reply to the review, write something that would not only impress the
reviewers but also other visitors.

Tips 4 - Keep the 'Negative Reviews' as well:

If
your product details page is full of reviews with flattering and
praising words & all 5 stars, that would possibly make other
visitors doubtful about authenticity of those reviews. If customers are
criticizing the products, it's your best chance to defend the reason and
let others know it. Take the chance to confront the negative reviews
with satisfying answers and place them among the other reviews.

Tips 5 - Reviewing Competition:

What
about announcing a little gift, free coupon or discount for the top
rated reviewers? Yes, that would definitely encourage visitors and
customers explore your products and write something about them. A $5
coupon code, 5% discount or free gift wrapping would inspire lot more
visitors and customers to write some lines for your products.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

According to a recent survey completed by TalkTalk Business, only
1% of SMEs in the UK utilise social media sites like Facebook and
Twitter as new business tools.
Can
this be true? Apparently so! I recently read an article in The Drum
which highlighted this and, I have to say, I was more than a little
surprised. Social Media platforms are most suited to SMEs in that they
are free to use, and help to engage directly with their existing, as
well as potential, customers. In 2011, Facebook surpassed even Google in
terms of internet usage... yet most companies will invest in a website
but not give social media a second thought, meaning they are only
covering themselves in half of the online market space.
From
reading many articles about the emergence of social media specifically
as a business tool, I have gleaned that this is mainly down to a classic
case of 'fear of the unknown'. "What does it do?", "how do we use it?"
and "Where do we start?" are all questions we encounter on an almost
daily basis. The answer to this is to have a clear cut strategy in place
for your social media usage. As with most forms of marketing, you need
to have a defined plan. This can be difficult when you don't fully
understand what you're working with yet, so don't be afraid to ask for a
little advice or input - sometimes the best ideas for content etc come
from customers themselves.
It is really important that you don't
overtly try to 'sell' your products and services to your online
audience. We see far too many cases of repeated posts of "buy our new
this" and "we sell that cheaper than such a body"... this is not the way
to go. Obviously the ultimate aim is to generate more or repeated
business from your social media usage, but this should be done in a more
engaging way. Try instead to be informative about the products/services
and become a bit of a guru of information within your specified area.
Chat with people, ask questions and answer their questions. The idea is
to engage with your audience in a way which will leave an impression,
making you the first company they think of when they think of a certain
product/service.
Another thing to consider is that social media is
a long term investment. It won't generate massive results over night,
and it is not a 'quick fix', but don't give up on it! Over time, it is
an excellent way of attracting/ gaining presence and retaining business and it WILL work if you do it properly and persevere with it.
Perhaps
the most important aspect of your strategy, along with what to post, is
where to post to. There are so many social media platforms in use, so
it is important to gauge which ones will be best suited to the audience
you are trying to target. For example, trying to endorse a video game is
likely to have a lot of success on Facebook, but yield very little on
LinkedIn. Gauging which outlets will have the greatest impact is all
about analising where your customers are more likely to frequent.
I will end with a comment from Paul Lawton, MD of TalkTalk Business -
"Social
media can prove invaluable as a new business tool and so it's worrying
to see that so few SMEs are embracing it. Its business benefits range
from being able to engage and understand the needs of customers and
prospects through to gaining insights into target markets and
perceptions of your organisation or brand".